When a young woman from High River put out a plea for graduation dresses for students who lost everything in the floods she was simply stunned by the overwhelming response she got from the public.
Becca Kehoe knows many of the students in this year's graduating class because they were in grade 10 when she graduated two years ago.
Kehoe knows the struggle those students are facing from the floods because her home was also full of water.
A couple of weeks ago she took to Facebook and sent out a message requesting 83 grad dresses for her friends.
Her request was seen by many and soon she was receiving support from all over the country.
On Friday, the tally was well over 2500 dresses and there are also shoes and accessories to match.
Southcentre Mall stepped up and donated some retail space and its designer team to spruce it up.
“They needed somewhere to set up the dresses and provide an opportunity for the young girls to come in and try them on and pick out a new dress and we thought, we can do that. We have an empty store, we like to be involved in the community, so we gave them a call,” said Krista Moroz from Southcentre.
“All the girls will have all their hair and makeup for free, we have Sara doing all the styling, we have photographers offering their services so all the girls should have hundreds of photos of themselves all professionally done, beautiful portraits of them, yup, it's pretty crazy,” said Kehoe.
The retail space is open Friday to Sunday and is exclusive to Highwood High School graduates.
The dresses that are left over will be donated to two other charities, the Cinderella Project and Princesses’ Closet.
(With files from Kevin Fleming)
